Tag Archives: Father John Misty

PJ Harvey ‘The Wheel’ First single from the forthcoming The Hope Six Demolition Project (April 15, Island) follows on from where Let England Shake left off, with added sax.
[PJ Harvey]

The I Don’t Cares ‘Born For Me’
Paul Westerberg and Juliana Hatfield team up for a new project which rocks in an understated way. The original version of this track featured on Westerberg’s album Suicaine Gratifaction (1999).
[The I Don’t Cares]

Operators ‘Cold Light’
Dan Boeckner (Divine Fits, Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade) with a track taken from the forthcoming debut Operators album Blue Wave (April 1, Last Gang Records). Eighties-indebted electronic pop with more than a nod to New Order.
[Operators]

Daughter ‘No Care’
The first of two tracks featured this episode from Daughter’s excellent second album Not to Disappear (4AD, out now). This is the record’s outlier, fast and direct and under three minutes long.
[Daughter]

Two White Cranes ‘Unattached’
Roxy Brennan (who can also be found playing with Trust Fund and Joanna gruesome) has been singing in her home town of Bristol for ten years. Two White Cranes is her solo project (though it also features collaborators). It’s a little indie folk, a little indie pop and very tuneful.
[Two White Cranes]

Suede ‘Like Kids’
Since 2010, Suede have done a great job of showing how you can handle a reunion with dignity. Playing hits heavy shows (check out their 2015 Glastonbury performance) and releasing two very good new albums 2013’s Bloodsports and now the loose concept album Night Thoughts. This track channels the same energy and vibe of the Coming Up-era.
[Suede]

Eleanor Friedberger ‘Cathy with the Curly Hair’
Former Fiery Furnaces Friedberger with another charming track from her third (and best) solo album New View (out now, Frenchkiss).
[Eleanor Friedberger]

Ryley Walker ‘The Roundabout’
I was fortunate to see Ryley Walker twice on his recent visit to Australia and was surprised when he played sets that featured none of my favourite tracks from last year’s excellent Primrose Green. Surprised, but not disappointed when he treated us to new songs such as this one.
[Ryley Walker]

Ty Segall ‘Diversion’
More west coast heavy psych from the Emotional Mugger album, this is a cover of a 1973 Equals number penned by Eddy Grant.
[Ty Segall]

Amber Arcades ‘Right Now’
Dutch musician Annelotte de Graaf records (aided by friends) under the moniker Amber Arcades, last year she went to New York to record her debut album with Ben Greenberg (formerly of The Men). The album is due out This track is taken from those sessions.[Amber Arcades]

Beverly ‘Victoria’
Brooklyn indiepop types Beverly, (now the core of Drew Citron plus collaborators after the departure of fellow founding member and Brooklyn indiepop-Zelig Frankie Rose) return with another track from their forthcoming second album Blue Swell (May 6th, Kanine).[Beverly]

Public Access TV ‘On Location’
New York Band. fans of The Strokes no doubt, deliver a crisp slice of new wave influenced guitar rock.
[Public Access TV]

Frankie Cosmos ‘Sinister’
Prolific Brooklynite musician Greta Kline follows up Zentropy with a track from her second album under the Frankie Cosmos name, New Thing (April 1, Bayonet).
[Frankie Cosmos]

Daughter ‘Fossa’
Second, more spacious track from Not to Disappear (4AD, out now).
[Daughter]

Father John Misty ‘Maybe, Sweet One, You Won’t Have Nightmares Tonight’
“I was asked to write a lullaby for Stephen Colbert as part of a skit for the show. Unfortunately the bit was cut for time/content.”
[Father John Misty]

Britta Phillips ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’
Britta Phillips of Luna and Dean and Britta fame will release her debut solo album later this year. Here’s a taste of what she can do in the driving seat with this wonderful Dylan cover.[Britta Phillips]

Stars ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’
Stars have long had a way with the cover version and in 2016 they’ll be releasing one a month, here’s the first featuring a lead vocal from Amy Milan on another Dylan classic.[Stars]

2015 was another great year for new music, but not all those tracks made it onto the best albums. The album is not an easy thing to get right. Some hit it with their debut and then fail to reach those heights again, others get it right second time around, still more take several attempts or never get there. Rare is the artist who reaches a high level of consistency. Rarer still those that keep getting better. This year proves that there are few certainties in music with a list that includes first timers, second chancers, late bloomers and old faithfuls, and omits just as many1.

Some of these records appear on many other end of year lists, but they are not here to make the list seem relevant. Others are much less celebrated, but they are not included in an attempt to appear iconoclastic. Rather, these 20 albums are those that have moved and excited me the most, the ones I still can’t stop playing, the ones that I love the most. Any other measure is meaningless.

20. Baio The Names
This could have been just a space filler from the nerdiest looking member of a nerdy looking band, but Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio has made good on his promise of an album of “Bowie and Ferry-influenced pop songs and dumbsmart arena techno”. Keeping it to a compact nine-songs-in-39-minutes, he has delivered a record with songs as charming, hooky and interesting as his day job band. Baio’s speak-singing voice suits the songs well thanks to his well judged and mannered phrasing. The tunes are instant, but continue to reveal further charms with every listen. It’s bizarre that this album has been so overlooked. What coverage it received has been good, but the likes of Pitchfork, The Guardian and NME failed to even review it. Clowns!

Recommended tracks: ‘Sister of Pearl’, ‘Brainwash Yyrr Face’, ‘I Was Born In A Marathon’, ‘Needs’.

19. Cristobal and the Sea Sugar NowLondon-based Anglo / Portugese / Spanish / Corsican fourpiece with debut album of upbeat, trippy psych pop and tropicalia funk. This record got left a few people perplexed or wnderwhelmed on its release back in October, but the sense of joie de vivre and the lightness of touch with which it blends its influences have kept me coming back to it over the last few months. Packed full of charm and its best songs are unlike anything else released this year.

18. Gun Outfit Dream All Over
The fourth album from the Olympia band led by guitarist / vocalist Dylan Sharp and Carrie Keith feels like riding through a sunblasted plain. You can feel the heat and taste the dust as the country noir and desert dreampop unfolds over 41 minutes with twelve songs that bear the imprint of folk, Sonic Youth, psych and krautrock. The near-motorik beats and meadnering guitars of ‘Gotta Wanna’, the sitar-like sounds of ‘Matters to a Head’, the slow stoned sprawl of ‘Scorpios Vegas’ and the closing ‘Only Ever Over’ are just some of the highlights.

17. Protomartyr The Agent IntellectDetroit post-punk infuenced band’s third album bridges the gap between Girls Against Boys and Cop Shoot Cop. Unlike those band’s there’s no twin bass attack, but there are unhinged rhythms, and a cold, jagged, metallic edge to the guitars while Joe Casey’s vocal style is part declamatory, part detached observer.

16. Wolf Alice My Love Is CoolThe north London band retain some of the grunge-influences of their earlier EPs on their debut album – particularly on ‘Your Loves Whore’, ‘Fluffy’, ‘You’re A Germ’ and the alt-rock muscularity of ‘Giant Peach’. But they also deliver the claustrophobic noir of ‘Silk’ and bring an assured pop sensibility to the likes of ‘Freazy’, ‘Bros’ and the breezily upbeat ode to stalkerish obsession ‘Lisbon’. It’s an excellent debut that defies attempts at pigeonholing.

Recommended tracks: ‘Bros’, ‘Lisbon’, ‘Silk’, ‘Your Loves Whore’

15. La Luz Weirdo Shrine
Surf rock meets pop noir on the Seattle band’s second album. Produced by sometime tour companion Ty Segall, who encouraged the band to take a more relaxed, less perfectionist attitude into the studio and talked singer / guitarist Shana Cleveland into embracing judicious use of a fuzz pedal. Coupled with lyrics in part inspired by Black Hole (Charles Burns’ allegorical graphic novel about a mutation-causing STI) this is one of 2015’s most beguiling albums.

14. Low Ones and SixesOver 20 years on from their slowcore origins, Low continue to develop their sound. Ones and Sixes assimilates all the elements of their past while continuing to move forward. There’s barely restrained anger and beauty in the music, frustration and love running through the lyrics. Drums are sometimes processed or replaced by machines, guitars and piano are distorted and an air of menace or at least foreboding underpins many of the songs (‘Gentle’, ‘No Comprende’, ‘Innocents’), even the prettiest of pop songs ‘What Part of Me’ has something dark stirring beneath the surface. But as with all Low records, beauty is never far away in the voices of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, whose shared vocals hit a high on the wonderful ‘Lies’.

13. Sufjan Stevens Carrie and LowellInspired by the brief time spent with his schizophrenic, alcoholic mother and her husband when Stevens was still a child, this album can’t help but at first appear like a complete downer. Drum-free and relying (mainly) on acoustic instrumentation, lyrics touching on religion, loss, mental illness and death, this isn’t always an easy listen and it’s not something that you can just put on in the background. But what saves it from ultimate wrist-slitter status are the vocals (even the “we’re all going to die” refrain of ‘Fourth of July’ sounds more beautiful than bleak) and some sparse yet nuanced arrangements (especially on the relatively uplifting ‘The Only Thing’ and ‘Eugene’). If you make it through the first time, each successive listen is more rewarding as the album reveals its complex moods. You might want to follow it up with some Carly Rae Jepson, though.

Recommended tracks: ‘Fourth of July’, ‘The Only Thing’, ‘Should Have Known Better’

12. Hop Along Painted Shut
Like Courtney Barnett, Kurt Vile, The Drink’s Derbhla Minogue and Royal Headache’s Shogun, Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan’s is a voice apart in 2015. A band with a distinctive sound that owes something to the 90s alt rock and even emo, on this their second album much of the power comes from the balance of restraint and release employed by Quinlan and her band as these ten compelling vignettes, touching on blues and jazz musicians, waffle house doppelgangers, humiliation and uncannily radiant teenagers, depression and abuse.

11. Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit
A singular talent whose keen eye finds relatable detail in the mundane details of both extraordinary and everyday situations and combines it with a storytelling ability that is at once quintessentially Australian and oddly universal in its appeal. Add the sometimes laidback / sometimes enervated singing style and her stellar guitar playing to create one of the most compelling artists of the decade (at least). Since the bundling of her first two EPs as A Sea of Split Peas, the world has been awaiting this debut album proper and, while the production doesn’t always do the live versions of the songs justice (and ‘Depreston’ is near-murdered by the shuffle beat and country-twang), this is still a great album.

10. Beach House Depression Cherry
The first of two albums released this year by the Baltimore duo. For me, this one just edges out Thank Your Lucky Stars. Warm keyboard washes and drones and Victoria Legrand’s enveloping vocals contrast with drum machine beats and Alex Scally’s distorted guitar tones to create woozy, otherworldly dreampop. An initially comforting and familiar listen that reveals its idiosyncrasies on repeated listens (the girl-group like spoken intro to ‘PPP’, the indecipherable vocal loop that intros and runs through ‘Spark’). Like its predecessor, Bloom (2012), this feels like a gentle pushing of the boundaries of the sound that they first fully realised on third album Teen Dream (2010).

Recommended tracks: ‘Levitation’, ‘Spark’, ‘Space Song’, ‘PPP’.

9. Kurt Vile b’lieve i’m goin’ down
Even more so than Wakin’ On A Pretty Daze (2013), B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down feels like the release that should bring Kurt Vile to a wider audience. Despite being recorded at six different studios with a variety of producers, engineers, mixers and musicians (including Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa) this album sounds seamless. Though Vile is (quite rightly) noted for his electric guitar playing, he’s no slouch on the acoustic (‘That’s Life, tho’, ‘Kidding Around’), banjo (‘I’m an Outlaw’) and piano (‘Lost My Head There’, ‘Bad Omens’). The lyrics are often self-referential and full of humour, with first single and opener ‘Pretty Pimpin’’ he’s written a classic slacker anthem and one of 2015’s best tunes. But just as importantly, he’s maintained that high level of songwriting across the record, an achievement that even extends to the triple-album version’s bonus tracks. Essential.

8. Royal Headache High
Four years on from their brilliant debut, Sydney’s premier garage-punk-soul band return with the second album that almost didn’t happen. Clocking in at just under half an hour, there’s an urgency to these ten songs that is lacking from much of what else is out there. ‘Need You’ and ‘Love Her If I Tried’ are northern soul as played by a bunch of garage punks; ‘Garbage’ swaps out the soul for filthy, distorted, metallic guitar; ‘Carolina’ is breezy, elegiac pop while ‘Another World’ alternates between disgust and longing with its “You ate my face to take my place so you can shine in another world / Cause you can’t discern I need a friend who makes me wanna fly to another world” refrain. All of it is elevated by a melodic sensibility and Shogun’s full-throated vocals.

7. Torres Sprinter
Two years on from her excellent debut, Mackenzie Scott returns with a follow up that finds an artist really coming into her own. All the elements – songwriting, lyrics, vocals, performance, arrangements – have moved on from the debut. If not entirely confessional (Scott is as likely to sing in character as she is in the first person) these are deeply personal songs, with lyrics that deal directly or tangentially with identity and finding one’s place in the world; relationships; fear of loss, betrayal. For the album, Scott enlisted original PJ Harvey drummer and bass player Robert Ellis and Ian Oliver (the former also in the producer’s chair) plus Portishead’s Adrian Utley. Their support is felt the most on the triumvirate of most rocking numbers (‘Strange Hellos’, ‘New Skin’ and the title track) as well as the assured and understated ‘Ferris Wheel’ and the re-recorded ‘The Harshest Light’ (previously available in demo form as an RSD 7”). But Sprinter’s most affecting number, the closing ‘The Exchange’, finds Scott solo with acoustic guitar (and some accompanying, ambient birdsong) touching on all the album’s themes through the prism of her adoptive mother’s own adoption.

6. Dick Diver Melbourne Florida
Melbourne, Asutralia purveyors of superior, literate guitar pop manages to leap forward while looking backwards. Previously, the band had been compared with the lo-fi jangle of early Go-Betweens and the more melodic of the vintage Flying Nun bands (esp. The Clean, though it’s an influence the band refute). On this their third album they have expanded the scope of their sound and while there’s still plenty of jangle, there’s also some harmonic psych pop chiming on the likes of ‘Waste The Alphabet’ and ‘Tearing The Posters Down’ which recalls first-album era-The Church while ‘Year in Pictures’ has people citing Icehouse’s ‘Great Southern Land’. Mainly-drummer Steph Hughes lead vocals may only appear on a couple of tracks but, as with ‘Gap Life’ on Calendar Days, ‘Leftovers’ leaves an indelible impression.

Recommended tracks: all of them, but try any of ‘Waste The Alphabet’, ‘Year In Pictures’, ‘Competition’, ‘Tearing The Posters Down’, ‘Leftovers’, ‘Private Number’

5. Tame Impala Currents
After two essential albums of guitar-heavy psychedelic rock, Kevin Parker shifts styles on the third Tame Impala album to embrace elements of 70s soul and 80s electronic pop. Despite the electronic production techniques that gave the earlier records much of their distinct flavour (and despite the fact that they have never really translated those solo studio creations into a compelling live experience) the lack of obvious rock guitar has polarized fans. Both of the band’s previous albums made my personal top five’s in their respective year of release and I’d consider them to both be near perfect. The same goes for Currents. I’ll admit, I don’t think I even registered exactly how different and relegated the guitars are from this album until I’d listened to it a few times. It’s such a dense, encapsulating listening experience, and even though they are expressed differently, the influence of psychedelia and late-period Beatles are as strong as ever. As is the quality of the song writing and construction. It comes across as an obvious (but no less brilliant) evolution.

4. Desperate Journalist Desperate Journalist
The jangle and chime of Rob Hardy’s 12 string Rickenbaker and Jo Bevan’s impassioned vocals often recall the pairing of Morrissey and Marr at their peak, but there’s also the influence of early-R.E.M., 90s alternative bands and the gothier end of post-punk (the name’s a Cure reference and you can hear the imprint of Joy Division, Siouxsie and The Banshees and The Cult’s Billy Duffy in there too). This debut album’s eleven songs bring a power, beauty, brightness and focus to a quintessentially English-take on post-punk and early-80s indie. If this isn’t on your end of year list, you just haven’t heard it yet, baby.

Recommended tracks: ‘Control’, ‘Cristina’, ‘Eulogy’

3. Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear
A marriage of concept, songwriting, performance and arrangement that few artists manage to achieve, yet alone sustain for an entire album. This is a leap forward from 2012’s excellent Fear Fun (and even further forward from the stripped down solo works as J. Tillman). From the lush orchestrated title track, to the mariachi horns and strings that adorn ‘Chateau Lobby #4’ to the 80s-influenced synth pop of ‘True Affection’, to the soulful backing vocals and mournful guitar that permeate ‘When You’re Smiling and Astride Me’, to the rising hysteria and stabbing keyboards of ‘The Ideal Husband’ to the near acapella ‘Bored in the USA’ and the acoustic-backed stream of consciousness platitudes / treatise on life and love that is ‘Holy Shit’. This is a diverse album that works as a whole. Some will label this Americana, but that would be inappropriate for an album whose strongest sonic influence appears to be late period Beatles.

Recommended tracks: all of them, but you could start with ‘Chateau Lobby #4’, ‘Bored in the USA’, ‘Ideal Husband’, ‘Holy Shit’

2. Joanna Newsom Divers
Five years on from her magnum opus triple album Have One On Me, Joanna Newsom returned, with what initially looked like a modest record for such a long time away, but soon revealed itself as a major triumph. The songs herein (many about love, place and time) are all of the highest quality, and Newsom’s playing is exceptional, not only on the harp but also a variety of instruments from Moog to Mellotron to Marxophone (and that’s just the Ms). While spending a lot of time mixing a record is usually a sign that the whole project is fucked, on Divers the extension of that period from two weeks to four months has paid off (read a great, non-nerdy article on the process here). As ever, her lyrics are esoteric, full of obscure historical references that often require one key phrase to be deciphered to reveal what the whole is about, but the songs also work on their own, knowing what they are about is not a pre-requisite for falling in love with them. And while her voice will probably always have its detractors, Newsom now has more range and subtly exhibits control without losing any of the character that is so important to the delivery of the songs.

Recommended tracks: all of them, but you could start with ‘A Pin-Light Bent’, ‘Leaving The City’, ‘Goose Eggs’, ‘Divers’.

1. The Drink Capital
After last year’s exceptional compilation Company, London-based three-piece The Drink released their debut album proper in November. Where Company was more angular, with much of the energy derived by how the guitar lines sat at odds with the rest of the instruments, Capital’s performances are more sinuous and fluid, the songs emboldened by the confidence and experience of the players, with elements of post-punk, afropop, goth, and prog rock feeding into their “odd, dark folk pop”.This is an album (not unlike Life Without Buildings’ Any Other City) that combines previously unrelated sweet spots from music’s past into something that sounds like it could only have been made in 2015. If there’s a song at the heart of the album it’s ‘You Won’t Come Back at All’, which builds to the extended instrumental outro on the last minute-and-a-half as Derbhla Minogue runs free with her guitar, weaving in and out of the rhythm laid down by Daniel Fordham (drums) and David Stewart (bass). It’s a lesson in the power of economy, like Neil Young playing a free range one-note guitar solo while Crazy Horse keep it locked in, or more recently, like Hospitality’s ‘I Miss Your Bones’. ‘The Coming Rain’ manages to skirt prog and disco funk and at the same time remain a sing-along indie pop song, while the closing ‘No Memory’ is propelled by a near constant minor tone of deep psych fuzz organ.

Recommended tracks: All of them – this album is ten near-perfect tracks, but if you aren’t hooked by the opening trio of ‘Like A River’, ‘You Won’t Come Back at All’ and ‘Potter’s Grave’, I don’t know what to tell ya.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra ‘Can’t Keep Checking My Phone’
Following on from the title track back in February (ITP #72) here’s another stand-out groove from the Portland band led by ex-pat Kiwi Ruban Nielson.
[Unknown Mortal Orchestra]

Built to Spill ‘Living Zoo’
Indie rock veteran Doug Martsch continues to combine great melodies with some winding, expressive guitar playing that is half J Masics, half Isaac Brock. This is from the band’s first new album in six years (and one of their best), Untethered Moon.
[Built to Spill]

Jacco Gardener ‘Find Yourself’
First featured here back in 2012 with ‘The Ballad of Little Jane’ (ITP#23), this is the title track from the dutch baroque psych pop dude’s forthcoming second album (Polyvinyl / Full Time Hobby / Excelsior, May 4), the follow up to the charming Cabinet of Curiosities (2013).
[Jacco Gardener]

Moon King ‘Apocalypse’
Toronto shoegaze duo with a track from their second album Secret Life (out now, Last Gang).
[Moon King]

Speedy Ortiz ‘Swell Content’
Short and snappy number from the 90s-indebted band’s new album Foil Deer (Carpark, out now).
[Speedy Orttiz]

U.S. Girls ‘Damn That Valley’
First featured here with ‘Jack’ back in August 2012 (ITP #16). After three self released albums and one on FatCat, Meghan Remy (who is U.S. Girls) makes her debut single for 4AD ahead of a full album later this year.
[U.S. Girls]

Miniboone ‘Basic Song’
From the New York art rock / power pop band’s second album Bad Sports (out now, Ernest Jennings Record Company).
[Miniboone]

Girlpool ‘Before the World Was Big’
Title track from the ITP favourites’ debut album (Wichita, June 1).
[Girlpool]

Downtown Boys ‘Monstro’
Providence, RI punk/ post-punk punks with a track taken from their Full Communism album (Don Giovani, May 4). Expect music that addresses “the prison-industrial complex, racism, queerphobia, capitalism, fascism, boredom, and all things people use to try to close our minds, eyes and hearts.”
[Downtown Boys]

Eternal Summers ‘Together or Alone’
First track to surface from the Roanoke, VA jangle pop band’s Gold and Stone album (Kanine, June 2).
[Eternal Summers]

Broken Water ‘Love and Poverty’
Olympia, WA band with a unique blend of grunge, shoegaze and 80s indie rock aesthetics. This is taken from their forthcoming album Wrought (Night People Records, out now)
[Broken Water]

Torres ‘The Harshest Light’
This track first appeared in a different form on a 2014 Record Store Day 7”, the structure remain similar, but the song has a more forceful presence, as if it was the work of a more confident artist.
[Torres]

Bill Fay ‘The Geese Are Flying Westward’
The north London singer songwriter, who waited 40 years between his second and third album, opens his fourth with this beautiful rumination on the path not travelled.
[Bill Fay]

Father John Misty ‘I Loved You, Honeybee’
A different version of ‘I Love You, Honeybear’ taken from the 2015 Record Store Day heart-shaped 7”.
[Father John Misty]

Eighteen of the best songs from the last two weeks. A fortnight’s worth of new music from the US, Australia, Canada, NZ, UK and Sweden.

Dick Diver ‘Tearing the Posters Down’
One of two songs to emerge from the forthcoming third album Melbourne, Florida (March 6, Chapter Music / Trouble in Mind) finds them taking both the jangle and songwriting up another notch.
[Dick Diver]

Desperate Journalist ‘Eulogy’
North London four-piece with a taste for The Smiths, post-punk and 12 string jangle have released a brilliant self-titled debut album (out now on Fierce Panda). This is just one of many stand out tracks.
[Desperate Journalist]

Unknown Mortal Orchestra ‘Multi-Love’
Portland based band featuring ex-pat Kiwis step it up for the title track of their forthcoming third album, due out on Jagjaguwar, May 25
[Unknown Mortal Orchestra]

Liam Hayes ‘Fokus’
Liam Hayes (the man behind slow moving project Plush) sounding like a power pop Ted Leo on this track from his Slurrup album (out now on Fat Possum).
[Liam Hayes]

Houndstooth ‘No News From Home’
Woozy psych-dappled folk pop title track from Pacific North Westerners’ forthcoming second album (March, No Quarter), the follow up to Ride Out The Dark.
[Houndstooth] http://houndstooth.virb.com/

Lower Dens ‘To Die in L.A.’
Poppier than anything on Nootropics, but still maintaining the Krautrock and Bowie-in Berlin influences of that album, this is taken from forthcoming third long player Escape From Evil (March 31, Ribbon Music).
[Lower Dens]

Alex G ‘Sarah’
Philly based Alex G has a wealth of music available on his Bandcamp page, a lot of recently reissued on ltd edition vinyl. This track originates from 2012 but is only now seeing the light of day. Lo-fi, melodic indie with heaps of charm.
[Alex G]

Father John Misty ‘Holy Shit’
One of many stand out cuts from J Tillman’s second album as FJM, I Love You, Honeybear (out now, Sub Pop).
[Father John Misty]

Fred Thomas ‘Bad Blood’
Leader of indie pop collective Saturday Looks Good To Me (among other projects), with something different and darker from his forthcoming solo album All Are Saved (Polyvinyl).
[Fred Thomas]

Babaganouj ‘Can’t Stop’
Brisbane band featuring two former members of the sadly defunct Go Violets with a big, bright pop song, the follow up to last year’s ‘Bluff’ and ‘Too Late For Love’ singles.
[Babaganouj]

Speedy Ortiz ‘Raising the Skate’
Northampton, MA 90s festishists return with first track from follow up to 2013’s Major Arcana, Foil Deer (April 21, Carpark). Lyrically a mission statement, and a reflection on the frustrations of being a female musician in 2015, singer/ songwriter/ guitarist Sadie Dupuis says “It’s crazy frustrating seeing women and girls, myself included, put in positions in which they have to shirk credit for their talent or otherwise risk getting dissed as overbearing and bitchy,”
[Speedy Ortiz]

Purity Ring ‘Heartsigh’
Opening track from the Canadian duo’s second 4AD album Another Eternity (March 3). Electronic pop with the occasional euphoric stadium house flourish.
[Purity Ring]

Joanna Gruesome ‘Last Year’
More self-proclaimed “dissonant wimp music” from the Welsh quintet who appear to have refined their noise / pop balance to better effect. This is taken from forthcoming second album Peanut Butter (Fortuna Pop! / Slumberland / Turnstile, May 11).
[Joanna Gruesome]

Nite Fields ‘You I Never Knew’
Taken from the Brisbane band’s Depersonalisation album, out now on Felte. Superior 80s goth / post-punk leaning sounds.
[Nite Fields]

Crushed Beaks ‘Overgrown’
Melodic, noisey indie pop that harks back to the mid-80s. Taken from the London band’s debut album Scatter (out now on Matilda).
[Crushed Beaks]

Makthaverskan ‘Witness’
Gothenburg post-punks with a track from their new limited 7″. Out in Europe on March 3, and in the US as an official Record Store Day single (April 18).
[Makthaverskan] https://www.facebook.com/makthaverskanofficial

Breakfast in Fur ‘Portrait’
Like In The Pharmacy favourites Diert Cig, Breakfast in Fur are from New Paltz, NY. But these guys eschew ramshackle indie pop for in favour of a more lush dreampop style as evinced on this track from their debut album Flyaway Garden (out now on Bar/None).
[Breakfast in Fur]

Ryley Walker ‘Sweet Satisfaction’
Another beauty from the Chicago singer/ songwriter / guitarist’s can’t-get-here-soon-enough Primrose Green album (Dead Oceans, March 31). Starting off with his picking folk guitar style and gentle jazz flavoured rhythms, this one has a vein of barely restrained fuzz running through it starting at the 1 minute 43 mark which carries on until the last two minutes of the song turn into more of a guitar freakout. Fantastic.
[Ryley Walker]

The best songs from the last two weeks (and a couple of late 2014 strays) . Tracks from the US, UK, Canada and Australia. New music from Belle and Sebastian, The Go! Team, Sleater-Kinney, The Dodos, Purity Ring, Father John Misty, Diet Cig, Cool Sounds, The Decemberists, Of Montreal, Girlpool, Ryley Walker, All Dogs, Waxahatchee, Twerps, Chastity Belt, Natalie Prass, and Iron & Wine.

Belle and Sebastian ‘Nobody’s Empire’
On first listen, the new Belle and Sebastian album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance is all over the place – Kleztmer, Mariachi, disco, sixties pop. But it soon reveals itself as something rather special. This, the opening track, is one of the most instant and also one of Stuart Murdoch’s most personal songs, dealing with his experience with chronic fatigue syndrome.
[Belle and Sebastian]

The Go! Team Scene Between
Ian Parton’s Brighton-based genre-hopping pop mashup project returns with title track of their fourth album, due out in March on Memphis Industries.
[The Go! Team]

Sleater-Kinney ‘No Cities To Love’
Title track from the comeback album, out this month on Sub Pop.
[Sleater-Kinney]

The Dodos ‘Goodbyes and Endings’
Second track to appear prior to the release of their forthcoming sixth album Individ. Baroque indie folk psych.
[The Dodos]

Purity Ring ‘Begin Again’
After ‘Push Pull’ (ITP #69) another track emerges from forthcoming second album Another Eternity (4AD, March 3), the follow up to 2012 debut Shrines.
[Purity Ring]

Father John Misty ‘Chateau Lobby 4 (in C for Two Virgins)’
J Tillman, prolific solo artist and former Fleet Foxes drummer, prepares to release his second album under the FJM moniker, I Love You Honeybear, the follow up to his excellent 2012 album Fear Fun. This song is beautiful.
[Father John Misty]

Diet Cig ‘Scene Sick’
Indiepop duo from New Paltz, NY. Taken from their limited edition cassette only release, Over Easy.
[Diet Cig]

Cool Sounds ‘Death Boys’
Melbourne indie pop band with a track from their new album, Healing Crystals.
[Cool Sounds]

The Decemberists ‘Mistral’
Penultimate track on the forthcoming What a Terrible World, What A Beautiful World.
[The Decemberists]

Of Montreal ‘Bassem Sabry’
Funky number from the forthcoming follow up to Lousy With Sylvianbriar, Aureate Gloom, out March 3 on Polyvinyl. This track is named after the Egyptian journalist and human rights campaigner who died in tragic circumstances last year at the age of 31.
[Of Montreal]

Girlpool ‘Alone at the Show’
After last year’s excellent self-titled EP / mini album. This is a new track featured on The Le Sigh Vol. II
[Girlpool]

Ryley Walker ‘Primrose Green’Lovely bit of retro, jazzy, psych folk. The title track of his second album, due out on Dead Oceans in March.
[Ryley Walker]

All Dogs ‘Georgia ’
Columus Ohio female fronted indie rockers first featured back in September 2013 with Lovesong (ITP #41). Like Girlpool’s ‘Alone at the Show’ this is taken from the new The Le Sigh Vol II zine + tape (sadly already sold out).
[All Dogs]

Twerps ‘I Don’t Mind’Melbourne janglers with a track from their forthcoming second album Range Anxiety, out next week in Chapter Music / Merge.
[Twerps]

Chastity Belt ‘Time to Go Home ’
First featured with ‘Black Sail’ back in August 2013 (ITP #39), this is the title track from the Pacific North West band’s forthcoming second album, due out in March on Hardly Art.
[Chastity Belt]

Natalie Prass ‘My Baby Don’t Understand Me’
Following on from ‘Why Don’t You Believe Me’ (ITP # 67) here’s another track from the debut album by sometime member of Jenny Lewis’ backing band and old schoolmate of Matthew E. White, Natalie Prass. This is taken from her debut album due out January 26 on Spacebomb.
[Natalie Prass]

Iron & Wine ‘Everyone’s Summer of ‘95’An old previously unreleased track, this is coming out on Archive Series Vol. 1 album and dates from the same time as the songs on his debut album The Creek Drank The Cradle (2002).
[Iron & Wine]